Dutch discount store HEMA is launching its own line of €2 vegan hot dogs.
“Good news: Our trusted hot dog is now also available vegan,” said HEMA via a Facebook announcement. The company says that the new hot dogs are made from 100 percent plant-based ingredients, containing “no fewer than 9 types of vegetables.”
HEMA CEO Tjeerd Jegen told the Amsterdam based newspaper Het Parool that, eventually, the chain will stock a vegan version of all its products, including an iconic Dutch smoked sausage known as rookworst.
This move toward plant-based products is part of a commitment to sustainability under the company’s new owner Marcel Boekhoorn, and Jegen says that HEMA aims to make sustainability accessible to customers.
“We were the first retailer to make products affordable for the ordinary man, the first where people were served in a restaurant,” Jegen told Het Parool. “Now we also want to be the first to make sustainability affordable for everyone in the Netherlands.”
HEMA has already made the switch to using 100 percent sustainable cotton, much earlier than the company had planned; and starting next year HEMA intends to remove all single-use plastic from products. HEMA has already stocked sustainable food options including vegetarian sausage roll and vegan apple pies.
Plant-Based Healthier and More Sustainable
The Council for the Environmental Infrastructure, an independent advisory board that advises on the outlines of Dutch government policy, suggested reducing animal protein consumption to 40% of total protein in the diet by 2030 in a report last April.
“The emerging demand for healthier, more sustainable food is a promising development,” the Council wrote in the report. “A shift in production and consumption from animal to vegetable proteins seems inevitable if we want to create a healthier and more sustainable food system.”
HEMA has more than 500 stores in the Netherlands, operates in eight other countries, and has announced plans to expand to the United States rebranded as HEMA Amsterdam and in partnership with Walmart.
The HEMA vegan hot dogs will be available at 10 Dutch stores initially, including Amsterdam Nieuwendijk, Amsterdam Osdorp, Amsterdam Zuid WTC, Almere-stad, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Groningen, Harderwijk, Nijmegen, and Maassluis.
